IMPROVEMENT OF THE EMPLOYMENT PROCESS OF THE YOUTH AS FACTOR FOR DEVELOPMENT OF THE NATIONAL ECONOMY

The purpose of this research is to identify the factors influencing the attitudes of the young concerning entrepreneurship and their readiness for starting their own business in order to reduce unemployment rate in the Republic of Serbia. For the study of attitudes and opinions of young people in relation to starting their own businesses the created questionnaire was the main instrument of this research.  The research included design of the questionnaire and determining samples of respondents. The questionnaire was designed with the aim to include issues of familiarity with the concept of youth entrepreneurship, the level of awareness of young people about the possibilities available for starting their own business, problems related to start-up businesses for the youth, as well as the role of the government in fostering entrepreneurship among young people.  The results have shown that the majority of the young people (80.62%) are ready to  start their own business. However, the big problem is the lack of an adequate environment for young entrepreneurs and this is the opinion of the 80% of respondents.  The missing factors for creating adequate environment are: lack of financial resources (32.26%), unstable political and economic situation (29.75%) and excessive taxes (20.30%).  Most of the respondents (90.33%) believe that the state should play a key role in encouraging young people to become entrepreneurs by using: soft loans, training, and laws / regulations related to young people as entrepreneurs. Based on the research we can conclude that young people are interested in starting their own business, but they lack the readiness for undertaking the entrepreneurial initiatives. The reason for this lies in the fact that young people have not confidence in the state and its institutions yet.
This study presents compared results of the three researches conducted among the students in Serbia during 2008, 2009 and  2010 as a response to the topic of the entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial behavior among the youth.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, unemployment, economy, entrepreneurial behaviour, knowledge

JEL Classification: J64, E24